Perspective on white-collar crime gives pause to court

April 30, 2006

A crook is a crook, whether he wears a blue collar or a white one. Two of Michael Boehm's victims made that point last week at his sentencing hearing in St. Joseph Superior Court. Before handing Boehm an eight-year sentence, Judge John Marnocha said he was struck by their comments. Why do we look at white-collar crimes different than street crimes? he wondered. The effect of both is the same. He heard about the impact from 10 of Boehm's 60-plus victims. They were the folks, mostly elderly, who invested money with Boehm and ended up losing it. Boehm's investment program turned out to be a pyramid scheme. Early investors were paid dividends with money paid by later investors. That kind of program is destined to fail. When it did, many victims lost their life savings. They might as well have been robbed at gunpoint. Some were left destitute. Some were forced to keep working well beyond their normal retirement years. Some were left dependent on their children or other family members. "I failed all these people,'' Boehm said at his sentencing hearing. But his apology was much too little and way too late. Some of his victims said it did not sound sincere. "He knew what he did,'' Bob Wozny said. "His act of contrition was not very convincing to me." Wozny, of Granger, lost $246,200 in the investment scam. But he and the others were pleased that the judge handed Boehm some serious jail time. An eight-year sentence means the 65-year-old Boehm will spend at least four years behind bars before he is eligible for release. Mark Mader, an attorney with the Indiana secretary of state's office, praised Prosecutor Michael Dvorak for the hard work he put into the case. Some of the victims, however, still had questions about the way the process worked. William Frascella of Mishawaka said he was a little annoyed at the prosecutor's office for the plea agreement that allowed Boehm to plead guilty to only four of the 30 counts against him. Both he and Wozny complained that none of the victims had been contacted before the case was settled. Other victims continued to wonder why the case was not tried in federal court, because it involved interstate commerce. Mader said the federal prosecutor investigated Boehm's wrongdoings but concluded that the longest sentence Boehm could receive would be three years. Because of the number of people who were wronged by Boehm, Mader said, authorities thought he should be tried in state court, where a longer sentence was possible. As for the 26 counts that were dismissed, Mader said the sentence would have been the same under state sentencing guildelines whether Boehm pleaded guilty to four counts or all 30. Marnocha also ordered Boehm to pay restitution to all of the victims, although most said they don't expect to get any money back from him. "I don't think we're gong to get any, but they left some hope,'' said Elizabeth Bujak of Niles. Most of the victims were happy that he will be behind bars, although some expressed other thoughts about it. "Honestly, I would prefer to get the money,'' Bujak said. She lost $46,750, money she received from a divorce settlement. Her son, Mitchell, lost $11,050. Boehm had to go to prison, Elizabeth Bujak said, because she didn't think he would stop scamming people any other way. Ethel Glueckert of South Bend was bothered by the sight of Boehm being handcuffed in the courtroom and led away by a county police officer. She would have preferred to have him taken into custody outside of the view of the victims. Glueckert lost $62,625. "I got no joy out of seeing Mike punished,'' said Barbara Copeland of South Bend, who lost $47,700. Since losing the money, Copeland said, she ended up blind in one eye after botched surgery; she's had three heart attacks; she's had a noncancerous tumor removed; and she has had other health issues. Not only that, but her beloved dog died and her business burned down. She has had to sell half of her house to a friend to get money to supplement the meager $537 a month she gets from her late husband's pension and Social Security. She had invested $20,000 at first with Boehm, and another $20,000 later. The money was her life savings. She initially was earning $700 a month in dividends, Copeland said. When she wanted out of the program, she said, Boehm promised to give her $20,000 right away and the other $20,000 later. She got nothing, and Boehm stopped answering her phone calls. Everybody had trusted Boehm. Friends and family members recommended his investment program to others. Bujak said someone at the local Chamber of Commerce recommended him to her. Frascella said he felt a sense of justice in the courtroom when the sentence was handed down and some of the victims cheered. "I also felt that I was in the courtroom with honest, decent people who were hoodwinked,'' Frascella said. Nancy J. Sulok's columns appear on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. You can reach her at nsulok@sbtinfo.com, or by writing c/o South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626, telephone (574) 235-6234.Nancy J. Sulok Commentary Nancy J. Sulok is a Tribune columnist.